Nukenin
by I'mNoOneSpecial
Summary: It has been less than half a year since Jiraiya left with Naruto to train him. But something happened. Tsunade receives a letter informing her that Jiraiya was mortally wounded fighting a black demon while Naruto disappeared. What happened to him? Who was that black demon, Akatsuki?
1. He's gone?

Hello, this is I'mNoOneSpecial again. This work here was one of a few big projects that I had started but didn't know whether to continue or not. Well, here's the first chapter and you guys tell me if I should continue or not.

All reviews and critiques are welcome; please don't hesitate.

Again I own nothing about the Naruto merchandise.

* * *

"Shizune! Go see if there are any news from on our ninja who are on mission!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" Immediately the medical ninja rushed off, her pet Tonton in her arms and worries on her mind.

For some reason Tsunade was on high alert since this morning: She had assigned additional ninja to patrol the city and guard the gates; several ninja were on stand-by to aid or rescue their comrades currently on missions; courier birds were sent out to get in touch with all the ninja currently out on duty; the ANBU were assembled and ready for action… One would think that the big-chested Hokage was expecting an invasion from her old teammate Orochimaru.

Not much later Shizune came back errand and passed over the reports that she had received; there wasn't anything significant: No casualties; no critical injuries that needed immediate treatment; no requests for back-up; no miss-ranked missions… Everything was going just fine.

Looking over the papers she was given Tsunade pondered what else could happen; she was sure that something had gone wrong or was about to but all the papers in front of her said otherwise.

Leaning back, Tsunade let out a tired and somewhat frustrated sigh.

'Maybe I just got lucky…' Even though it was in her own mind it had sounded doubtful to her. Try as she might, she could not shake off the feeling of impending doom…

"Oh, I almost forgot, Tsunade-sama-" She almost bit her tongue when she flinched back from the intense glare that her teacher was directing at her, "t-there was a letter that just came in…" Quickly she handed it over.

She had no idea what the letter was about, when the assistant had given it to her was already almost on her way to bring the reports to the Hokage.

If only she had known what the letter was about… She would have definitely handed it first! Than perhaps the teams would have made it in time…

…

With great wariness and suspicion Tsunade eyed the letter in front of her; she just had a feeling that screamed that that innocent looking piece of paper contained all the bad news that that she had been expecting since this morning! With the look of a commander who led his troops in a charge against a hostile army she started reading! And the farther she proceeded through the text the more alarmed Tsunade grew; she stared so hard at the letter that it was a miracle that it didn't catch fire! It seemed as though her worst fears had come to pass…

The next second she was on her feet shouting out orders: "Shizune! I want Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Team 8 to report immediately! This is an emergency!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!"

Next she called for a specific ANBU to attend as well.

Having given her orders she slumped into her chair, her left hand on her face.

"Why is it that every time I win the lottery or something some sort of disaster has to strike…?"

…

A short while later all the ninja had assembled in front of the Hokage. The ANBU that Tsunade had called for had taken off his mask and ANBU-uniform and changed into the uniform of a regular Jonin; furthermore Tsunade had given him the temporary name Yamato.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly; as you all know, less than half a year ago Jiraiya left with Naruto to train him."

Immediately everyone feared that something must have happened to them; the fact that Tsunade had mentioned Naruto's training journey combined with her grim tone was more than enough proof to that. But what could have happened? Jiraiya was a Sannin and currently the most powerful ninja of Konoha.

"They were last seen in a small town near the border of Fire country. From what I received they had checked in an inn and everyday they would go into the nearby woods to train; but one day they were attacked…"

She paused to let the news sink in before she gave specifics.

"Eyewitnesses claim that they saw Jiraiya fighting off a black demon before he lured it deeper into the forest. Later, a search party found Jiraiya unconscious and critically injured among the destruction of their battle but there was no trace of the demon, and Naruto…"

Here she paused again; perhaps to give her ninja time to brace themselves for the bad news.

"…was nowhere found either."

At once everyone's face grew as grim as that of the Hokage.

"Shizune, Sakura and Ino, you are to heal Jiraiya. It is vital that he recovers and regains consciousness as he is the only one who knows what actually happened. If he doesn't regain consciousness…"

Tsunade hesitated; should she go through with her initial plan? Should she really permit Ino to enter Jiraiya's mind if he remained unconscious? Ino was still a genin and to make matters worse a gossiping hen, and there were some things that Jiraiya knew that were so… delicate, that whatever perverted thoughts Ino would find were the least of Tsunade's worries. And if her suspicions about that demon were correct… Unluckily, right now there was no other Yamanaka available.

"…then Ino may enter Jiraiya's mind upon your decision Shizune." She just hoped that the situation wasn't that bad that this would be necessary.

"This will be an A-ranked mission. As for Team 8, you are on an S-ranked mission as of now: Find Naruto and bring him home safely. You will be under the combined leadership of Jonins Hatake and Yamato. If any of you genin encounter the demon during your search, do not engage it! Inform Kakashi and Yamato and leave the area immediately! Since we do not know what that demon exactly is, it is safer for you genin to avoid it; for all we know it could be a member of the Akatsuki so leave the matter to the jonin and get to safety. You all have an hour to prepare yourselves. Dismissed!"

The genin immediately hurried home to get all the gear that they would need, but the jonin chose to remain behind; they had a suspicion about the demon so Kakashi decided to ask.

"Hokage-sama, about that demon-"

"According to the eyewitnesses it was a small, reddish black humanoid with beastly features and…"

The three jonin looked at her expectantly.

"…four long wavering tails…"

That was exactly what they had feared; it was clear now why Team 8 was told to avoid the demon at all costs.

"But Tsunade-sama…" Shizune didn't want to believe it "How did this-"

"I do not know what happened; in his last report Jiraiya wrote something about some special training or that he was going to try something with Naruto but he wrote nothing specific. That is why it is crucial that Jiraiya regains consciousness, Shizune."

Her assistant nodded, determined to get the old pervert awake.

"I have told you now everything that I know; now move out!"

...

Less than an hour later all the ninja were assembled at the gates of Konoha and almost immediately they took off. All of them were worried for their, apparently lost, comrade but none more than the little Hyuga who silently swore to herself that she would find Naruto.

* * *

And now you have to suffer the three words of torment:

To be continued...


	2. Bizarre Findings

Hello everyone, this is I'mNoOneSpecial again. First of all, sorry for the delay. Last time I didn't receive too many reviews so I guess I wasn't too motivated to continue. I really wanted to update sooner, but I have my job and whatever muse was watching over me hasn't been too helpful with this chapter; in fact this is only the first part of this chapter, I started the second part but it didn't sound right so I decided to erase everything and start all over again. Well, here's the first part, see if you like it.

Oh yes, regarding the first review I got saying 'total crap', if you don't like my story don't just throw insults at me; tell what I did wrong, where and how. This shit's not getting better with reviews consisting of just two words.

No, I don't own Naruto or anything related to him; I never would have thought of having him kiss Sasuke.

...

PS: While I wasn't able to be too productive with this chapter, I managed quite a head start on a later chapter, one definitely more interesting.

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July 9, 2014 - Here's another part for this chapter. It's not yet complete, but for some reason I decided to complete this chapter piece by piece.

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The two teams made it to the village in record time and went straight to the mayor. Team 8 together with Kakashi and Yamato were immediately directed to the site where Jiraiya had been found. Shizune and the two other girls on the other hand went straight to the local hospital and there the doctor had a nurse lead them to the room where the sannin lay. He was laying on a bed, unconscious, an oxygen mask over his mouth, and several machines were attached to him and monitored his vital signals.

"Whatever he faced in the woods, it almost killed him. He has been unconscious since we he was found," The nurse explained to Shizune, "Our examination shows that what caused him to lose consciousness was the injury on the back of his head. We also found a fracture at the side of his jaw. Taken together with where we found him and how he was slumped on the ground, we believe that he received a blow powerful enough that it sent him backwards, headfirst against a tree. But what perplex us most are the clawmarks on his body."

"What about them?" Shizune wanted to know.

"Well…", the nuse hesitated, unsure how to explain, "Our patient has several clawmarks on his body, as though he was attacked by some beast, but…"

The nurse looked uncertain, not really afraid but definitely spooked.

"If he really was attacked by some beast, then it's claws must have been on fire…"

Sakura and Ino were visibly confused.

"The clawmarks are not just clawmarks, they are scorchmarks as well. I have never seen such injuries before; they look as though the claws tore and burned the flesh at the same time. Most were not too serious but the one on his chest… that one was almost fatal."

"Thank you nurse; we will take charge of the patient now. Sakura, Ino; prepare everything for the examination and take off his bandages. They need to be changed and I need to see those clawmarks myself."

While the two younger apprentices got to work Sizune read the medical record that the nurse had left to her. Aside from what the nurse had told her, Jiraya had also lost an unhealthy amount of blood, and had a couple of broken bones as well.

"Sempai!" Ino's shocked voice brought Shizune over to look at Jiraiya and soon her face mirrored the looks of her kohai. She had just read about it but the actual sight still shocked her into silence.

Across Jiraiya's chest was a terrible wound. It looked as though some beast had tried to rip a chunk of flesh out of his chest. The skin and and exposed flesh was burned; and at the depest sites, five parallel gashes; you could even see some bone. In fact, if it wasn't for the ribcage, Jiraiya would be missing his heart and half of his lungs!

The nurse had not been too wrong with her description; it really did look as though someone had ripped across Jiraiya's chest with iron claws, red-hot burning iron claws, but there was something off with these burns; something that the nurse had missed.

Just to be sure Shizune looked closely once more before announcing: "These burns were not caused by any fire; these are chakra burns."

Sakura and Ino were astonished; as Tsunade's apprentices they had to study how to recognize and treat wounds and injuries of varying types and degrees, and this one beat the extreme cases of chakra burns that they had seen in their textbooks.

"This is the kind of injury that a multi-bladed chakra weapon would leave behind."

Hearing the explanation from their sempai somewhat lessened their shock; but both Sakura and Ino were smart, knowledgeable girls so-

"Shizune-sempai, this looks more serious than the illustrations of extreme cases that I have seen. Whoever was responsible must have channeled an immense amount of chakra into the claws," Sakura remarked.

"I agree, just look at the wound," Ino concurred, "most of the damage was obviously not done by the claws themselves but by the intense chakra that surrounded them."

"That is true," Shizune confirmed; normally she would have been proud of the two for making such good observations but today it got her worried, "Ino I think it is safer if you do not enter his mind; the injury on his head doesn't seem too serious but the fact that he is still unconscious worries me. In his current state it is hard to say if his mind is stable enough for your jutsu."

"But Shizune-sempai," Ino protested, "What about Naruto?"

"I'm sorry Ino, but it is just too risky. Using your jutsu on him right now could cause some serious damage to his mind, he might develop amnesia, or you might even destroy his mind and he will end up staying in that coma forever. Also, his condition is still quite serious. As you can see most of that clawmark lies over his lungs and heart and although they took no direct damage, Jiraiya does show some irregular heart and lung activity, maybe due to that powerful chakra. His condition might be stable for now but there is a chance that it could get worse at any moment; his heart might even stop. It is better that you do not enter his mind seeing that he could die at any moment."

Ino had no choice but to back down; if she transferred her mind into Jiraiya and he died… than both of them would be gone, the body cannot live without the mind.

"Let's continue our examination…"

...

Meanwhile the tracking team had was at the site where the eyewitnesses had seen Jiraiya and the demon.

"What the-" The sight reminded Kiba of his mother when she had a bad day and decided to let off steam in a training field. The only difference was that, although she was probably strong enough, Kiba could not remember his mother having done THIS much damage before!

There were claw marks everywhere: on the trees and even the ground. Large, strong branches had been broken off; chunks of wood had been ripped right out of the tree trunks; rocks have been smashed into pebbles; the ground was riddled with craters and furrows...

"Alright everyone", Kakashi called for a short briefing, "we will examine this field to find out what exactly happened here but foremost to find any clues that could lead us to Naruto. Spread out but stay within the range of your radios. Hinata-"

"H-Hai", although her voice was a bit shaky she was determined to do everything she could to find Naruto; failure was not an option!

"I want you to stay in the center of the field; use your byakugan to scan the field for any clues and inform us if you see anything unusual."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

"Good" Next he summoned his ninkens to assist in the search but also to keep an eye on the genin, "Alright then move out."

...

A couple of seconds later Hinata was at her assigned spot. While her assigned ninkens started sniffing the ground she activated her bloodline. Needless to say she immediately scanned the area for footprints that were the size of Naruto's.

Knowing Naruto he had probably participated in the fight with the demon; he wasn't the kind of ninja who would run from a battle. And knowing how he fought, he probably had deployed his kage bunshin so there should be a lot of footprints. True, you couldn't tell at first which belonged to the original or to a clone, but that could be figured out once you followed the tracks backwards.

But Hinata saw something totally unexpected for her...

"N-No... this can't be- Kakashi-sensei! This is Hinata, please respond!"

To be continued...


	3. Cursed rain

Minutes later the few drops were joined by many more; it was raining. The tracking team had to move fast; the downpour wasn't particularly strong but it was strong enough to wash away footprints and scent marks; the mission was doomed.

The five ninja rushed through the forest as fast as they could, following the fast fading tracks, hoping to find Naruto before there were none left to follow. Hinata was in the lead; Kiba's and Akamaru's noses were now of little use and so were those of Kakashi and his ninkens. But even the Hyuuga's byakugan was slowly but surely losing to the rain; Hinata was literally watching the tracks change into small indistinct puddles; soon she wouldn't be able to tell which had been footprints and which were really just puddles formed by the rain. Frantically Hinata focused more chakra to her eyes, hoping it would extend her range of vision and help her see more clearly.

'_Kami-sama why...? Why did it have to rain?'_

Tracking down Naruto would have been possible but now...

Scanning the field had been so easy... but at the same time worrying. Among all the footprints (Naruto and Jiraiya had been here to train several times after all) Hinata had managed to pick out a line of footprints that seemed to be Naruto's size as well as fairly recent; but that line led directly to...

A crater.

No, it wasn't really a crater; it was more like a pit, only a couple of centimetres deep at the centre. But it looked like it had been caused by some sort of explosion or fire. The strange thing was that the grass hadn't been burned away, it looked more like… withered away. And the soil beneath had been reduced to unfertile dust.

Not much later, the bugs that Shino had sent out to examine the pit flew back to him.

"Well? What have your bugs found?" Kakashi wanted to know.

"It is quite possible that this pit is the result of some sort of jutsu. Why? Because according to my allies, this earth of pit is saturated with residual chakra."

He took a moment to adjust his glasses. Although his face was practically blank, he seemed to be bothered.

"Furthermore, the chakra apparently is much denser than residual chakra normally should be. As such, the chakra appears also to be exceptionally powerful."

Here the young Aburame seemed to frown.

"And my allies tell me that this chakra is... evil. They say it is dangerous and it seems to invoke... fear in them..." Which was quite a feat, seeing that insects are not known to be very emotional; feelings such as fear or terror are practically not within their sensation!

"A-ano... S-shino-k-kun...?" Hinata had been listening to every word he had said and each bit of information had her grow more and more worried, "W-what k-kind of j-jutsu?"

Shino looked at her and took a moment before answering. He had already figured out why she was so worried and thought how to probably word his answer.

"My apologies, but I do not have enough evidence to identify what kind jutsu was used here. That is, if there a jutsu really has been used here." If anything, it looked as if someone had emitted large quantities chakra of immense magnitude.

Shino could tell though that the chakra was densest at the centre of the pit, meaning that the focus (or possibly even source) must have been at the centre of this shallow pit.

That almost caused Hinata to lose consciousness; because the only possible target must have been-

'_Naruto-kun...'_

His footprints didn't stop in front of the pit! A few could be seen going towards the middle of the pit but were partially obliterated when the jutsu was cast. But what worried her most was the pair of Naruto's footprints right in the center! The jutsu had been cast exactly where Naruto had been standing, and according to Shino they were practically overflowing with that evil chakra!

Hinata prayed with all her heart that whatever that strange chakra infused pit was, oh kami-sama, don't let it be the result of some powerful offensive ninjutsu!

From here on all traces of Naruto just seemed to vanish… there were still plenty of his footprints but they looked too old. The next best thing was to look for were the tracks left by getas; Jiraiya's tracks.

From what Hinata could see, Jiraiya had been walking side-by-side with Naruto as they had stepped on the field but Jiraiya's tracks did stop infront of the pit and his tracks showed no traces of that strange chakra, meaning he hadn't been affected by it.

Hinata had been shocked and angered by this. True, there was no final proof yet that Naruto had been hit by a jutsu or if he was even hurt at all, but still! Naruto had been officially entrusted into Jiraiya's care; as Naruto's sensei, Jiraiya was responsible for Naruto's safety! Kurenai would have never allowed Hinata or her teammates to get injured; not if there was anything that she could have done to prevent or stop it! So what had Jiraiya been doing?!

"Looks like he had been attacked..." Kakashi's voice brought Hinata's upset thoughts to a hold, "From what I can tell, someone attacked Jiraiya head on and he dodged by jumping out of the way..." While Hinata had seen all the evidence and tracks, she was not yet able to piece the story together.

At this point Kakashi got down to examine something more closely.

"Tracks...?"

Hinata looked what Kaskashi was looking at. At first it didn't really look like tracks; just strange looking pits like the big one. But they were much, much smaller; in fact, foot-sized. And using her byakugan she soon discovered that these strange tracks followed a path.

A new set of tracks had appeared; footprints that at first glance seemed to have been left behind by a creature of fire, with the same evil chakra as that of the large pit... these were, without doubt, the tracks of the reported demon. Neither Hinata nor her teammates had ever seen such tracks before; they looked just like the strange pit; wherever the demon had set foot, the grass had withered and the soil had been reduced to ash.

Hinata couldn´t tell where the demon had come from; as far as she could tell it had just appeared out of nowhere just like the strange pit.

Judging from the destruction all around them it was clear that some sort of battle had ensured between the demon and the sannin; the clawmarks and furrows were proof enough of that. But...

"Umm... Kakashi-sensei?"

"What is it Hinata?"

"I cannot find any signs of Jiraiya-sama or Naruto-kun fighting back. I cannot see any shuriken or kunai, or any sign of a jutsu..."

'_That doesn't sound right...'_ Kakashi thought; there was no way that Jiraiya wouldn't have fought back unless...

"Are you sure there is nothing?"

"U-umm..." Hinata looked again "Wait... there is some sort of pit again, but this one looks different..."

"Alright, lead us there."

The next moment the ninja squad was off running deeper into the forest. But there was something about the demon's tracks that Hinata and the other genin had failed to notice:

They were around Naruto's size...

A couple of minutes later the ninja had arrived at another pit, but just like Hinata said this one looked quite different: The one before had looked as though it had been made by a fire, but this one looked like a dried out waterhole; however...

"What's this doing here?!" Kiba wondered "This is totally the wrong place! There is no water here and it shouldn't gather here even if it rains!"

"It doesn't fit with the surrounding plants either..." Hinata observed.

"That's because a jutsu has been cast here," Kakashi responded; with Yamato's help he knew exactly what jutsu had been used and by whom; "It seems that Jiraiya tried to trap the demon with the Yomi Numa (Swamp of the Underworld), an earth jutsu that turns the ground into a quagmire; but from the looks of it... it didn't work..."

In the centre of the pit it was clear to see that whatever had been caught in the mud had managed to break get out.

However, how the demon had managed to do that was a riddle to the genin. Judging from the size of the pit, the quagmire had been wide big enough to trap an elephant! And what made an escape even more difficult; several trees had been caught in the jutsu, and some had sunk over a meter deep into the ground! So had the demon escaped, especially from the centre?!

Just then, Shino came over to report his findings: "Kakashi-sensei, the bugs I sent to that tree have just returned."

Said tree was closest to where the demon had been; and it sunk almost two meters deep! But what made it most curious was that aside from a pair of scorched footprints, it had a new scorch mark; this one looked as an animal had grabbed onto the tree with a thick, burning tail.

"My bugs tell that this scorch mark was made by the same intense chakra that created these strange footprints."

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully.

"Let's move on; the rain is getting stronger!"

The tracks led the ninja to the spot where Jiraiya had been found; and here too was a peculiarity.

"Hair?!" Kiba picked up a few strands.

On the ground, gathered around and between two trees were bundles of long wild hair; long enough to make metres of rope. Much of the hair was wound around the branches and trunks of the two trees, as if to bind something in between them.

True enough, there on the ground, right between the two trees, were once again the scorched footprints of the demon.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Kiba and Akamaru had both taken a sniff of the hair, "This hair smells like Jiraiya-sama!"

Kakashi nodded; he too had been able to tell that.

Not only that, he had also found a pair of geta tracks a couple of meters in front of the demon tracks. But other than that there was nothing more to be learned from this place.

"Where next to Hinata?" The rain wasn't getting stronger, but it wasn't going to end any time soon either! "Can you still see any tracks?"

Hinata double checked with her byakugan; it was rather difficult to pick out any useful tracks since the villagers had come here to pick Jiraiya, "I cannot see any more tracks of Jiraiya-sama... but... the tracks of the demon still seem to continue..."

Kakashi hesitated here; as much as possible the genin were to avoid the demon but...

"We will follow the demon's tracks."

"They do not continue much farther, sensei," Hinata replied "They lead to another strange pit and end there-"

Kakashi looked at her alarmed; she almost took a step back in fright.

"Lead us there now!"

Besides the tracks near Jiraiya's hair bundles, the demon had left marks everywhere at that spot; several trees looked as though something thick and heavy had smashed into their trunks; bark had chipped off the trees. The demon's footprints followed a chaotic irregular path... from what Kakashi could tell the demon must have been thrashing about, but why?

From here on the ground was sloping downhill, and apparently the demon hadn't noticed; it had gone all the way down tumbling. And where its roll had come to a halt was marked once again by a strange pit. This one wasn't anything special; just the kind of pit that would remain after some animal had been lying on the ground...

"What the-" Kiba was at a loss for words.

Hearing Kiba somewhat confused Hinata; she didn't see anything unusual about this pit... but seeing the grim faces of the others, she looked again... and now... something seemed off.

'_The colour!'_, Hinata finally realized. Her byakugan only allowed her to see black, white and shades of grey, so she had barely realized that the colour of the pit was different from the surrounding ground!

She deactivated her bloodline...

And immediately stepped back in shock.

If someone had been lying here, than he must have had injuries all over his body; the pit was soaked with blood.

"Hinata, did you see any more tracks beyond this pit?" Kakashi's voice sounded quite urgent; which startled Hinata.

"N-no... I-I didn't-"

"Look again! Quick!" Kiba urged.

"U-um..." Hinata was a bit hesitant; having used her bloodline all this time had strained her eyes, and she wasn't too keen about finding a bloody body...

"Hurry up! This is Naruto's blood!" Kiba immediately regretted that last part.

Never in her life before had had Hinata ever activated her bloodline so quickly! You could say that she did it at the blink of an eye. Immediately she scanned as far as she could see for any tracks or signs that might lead her to Naruto!

...but...

"I... I ca-cannot see any tracks anymore…" Hinata's voice was breaking, just like her heart, "… t-there s-seem to have b-been some bloody f-footp-prints… b-but…"

She barely managed to say it…

"…t-the r-rain has a-already w-washed them… a…away…"

…before she started crying…

Except for a few specks of blood here and there nothing was left; not much longer and soon even those tiny specks would be gone as well. The blood that had gathered in that pit was also half gone; the only reason it had survived so long was because there had been so much of it.

"We still have a chance." Kakashi's voice seemed to revive the distraught Hinata, "From here on we will fan out; go as far as you can but stay within the rane of each other's radios. Hinata will be on the central path, Yamato and I will make up the inside pair and Shino and Kiba will be on the outside. We still need to be wary of the demon, so if any of you genin encounter it, alert the Jonin closest to you, and retreat. Be sure to meet up with the other genin before you make your way back to the village. Hinata, try to keep both me and Yamato inside your field of vision; if you see either of us suddenly change course immediately alert the other and meet up with your teammates. Understood?"

Seeing that everybody confirmed, he gave the order to move out. But one person didn't move as ordered…

"Kakashi-sensei."

Without stopping, the one-eyed jonin simply turned his eye towards the young Aburame jumping alongside him.

"About that pit…" Shino started.

"So you noticed…"

The pit wasn't just filled with Naruto's blood… it was also filled with the demon's chakra… 

Hinata was jumping from tree to tree, covering as much distance as fast as she could. It was getting dark and the branches were so wet that she had slipped several times and once she almost fell from the trees, but she kept going, determined to find Naruto. The two jonin were almost out of her enhanced eyesight, and when they spoke via radio, they could barely understand one another.

"Hina... ta... ple... ase... re... spon... d..."

"H-hai, this is Hinata, Kakashi-sensei."

"Tur... n... bac... k... we... he... ad... ba... ck..."

_'No, they couldn't give up now! We still haven't found Naruto-kun!' _Hinata was close to crying.

"B-but K-kakashi-se-sensei... !"

"No... thi... ng... mor... e... we... ca... n... do..."

_'Please... something... anything! Surely there is still something we can do...' _The first tears ran down her cheeks.

...

"NARUTO!"

Hinata turned towards the distant cry.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

_'Kiba-kun?'_

"NARUTO!"

_'Shino-kun?'_

At first, Hinata could do nothing but listen to her teammates... until-

"NARUTO-KUN!"

Soon, the two jonin and Kakashi's ninken also joined in.

Tears and raindrops streaming down her face, Hinata kept shouting until her voice ran out...


	4. Too powerful

Belated merry christmas everyone and an advanced happy new year. Here's a little something, sorry it took so (unreasonably) long. You may want to read the preceding chapter again; I added some parts to it.

* * *

Tsunade read through another message before sighing in frustration;

"No word of the gaki again…"

It had been two days since Shizune's team had returned with the battered Jiraiya… but without Naruto… Despite its best efforts the search party had been unable to find Naruto; the retrieval mission had been a failure so far. Right now Kakashi and his team were on their way to the village that was closest to where Naruto's tracks had disappeared; a settlement dangerously close to Rice country, Naruto had disappeared just a bit south of it.

'_I just hope the idiot didn't go to Sound…'_ Tsunade prayed fiercely; from Jiraiya's letters she knew that Naruto had tried to convince the sage several times to go look for Sasuke.

Speaking of Jiraiya, he was still unconscious; when Shizune's team had arrived, Jiraiya had been immediately sent to the hospital. They had done all they could, and he was out of any serious danger, but now they could only wait for him to wake up…

In the meantime Tsunade had done everything that possible to her to bring back Naruto: Her spies in Rice country were to investigate if Naruto had ventured into the borders of Rice country or even Sound; it was already bad enough that Orochimaru got hold of Konoha's last Uchiha, if he were to get hold of Konoha's jinchuuriki as well…

Tsunade had also sent messages to Suna and all of Konoha's nearby allies. For safety reasons, just in case that the message got intercepted by enemies, she had written that Naruto was still traveling with the Toad Sage, and if anyone saw them, they were to let her know and give the two a warm welcome. Regardless of where Naruto was right now, he was all alone; letting the world believe that the gaki was still traveling with the sannin should offer him a little bit of protection, at the very least she hoped it would buy her enough time to find Naruto before anybody else like Itachi did. Telling Konoha's allies that Naruto might be in the area and offer him some hospitality should get them to keep an eye out for him. Hopefully, with if Konoha failed to find Naruto first, this should assure that he would fall into the right hands before he fell into the wrong…

Finally, all the ninja currently out on missions were informed that Naruto was missing and that aside from completing their assigned missions they were to be on the look-out for him as well. Tsunade was planning to send out more search parties as well but fight now that just wasn't possible ; the right people just had to be out on assignments…

"Tsunade-sama!" The Godaime looked at the ANBU, "Jiraiya-sama just woke up."

"Finally!" She stormed out of her office; it was high time for some answers!

She had read Kakashi's report; she had read it over and over to get a clear picture of what had happened... and the picture that she got wasn't very pretty...

She hoped that she was wrong but... the mysterious demon that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and almost killed Jiraiya most likely had been...

...Naruto.

Everything seemed to match up: That village had never any reports of any demons or the like showing up. As far as everything indicated, the only demon that came into question was the one Naruto held inside him.

As soon as Naruto had disappeared, the demon appeared; and vice versa.

Jiraiya was a powerful fighter yet he had not fought back; he had only meant to trap and immobilize his opponent, clearly it was someone Jiraiya refused to kill.

Finally, the bloody pit which was soaked in Naruto's blood had also emitted that evil chakra.

Going over everything, Tsunade came to a dark conclusion: Naruto had lost control over the kyubi and it had temporarily taken over his mind.

But how did it happen?!

The old toad sage better had some good answers...

Jiraiya definitely had better days before; he sat in his bed, bandaged and beaten up. He was awake, Just like Tsunade had been told, but it was obvious that he was still groggy; hopefully his head was clear enough to give some explanation.

"How do you feel?"

"Like crap..." The injured sannin took a moment to gather his thoughts, "Is it true?... Naruto is... gone?"

"Yes..."

"Shit..."

Tsunade fought to remain calm; she knew that pained tone and expression of his: He had screwed up! Big time!

"They found the battlefield..." it showed in her voice just how bad the situation was, "What happened?"

Sighing, hesitating, the toad sage started his story...

He didn't get very far before he was interrupted.

"YOU BROKE HIS SEAL?!" Tsunade thought she was hearing things; else Jiraiya would leave the hospital only to enter the graveyard!

"N-no! I just opened it a little-"

"'Just opened it a little?!'" Tsunade pulled him up and close; if only she didn't look like she was seriously going to kill him, Jiraiya would have been ecstatic about being so close to her face. "That gaki has barely enough control over his own chakra to form a simple jutsu! How did you expect him to keep control over the kyubi's chakra just like that?! Just what the hell were you thinking?!"

Tsunade readied her fist to smash his head to paste.

"I-I know! Looking back , he wasn't really ready but-"

The chakra in Tsunade's fist was so dense and focused, the whole air in the room seemed to shift because of it!

"But he needs to gain control over the kyubi's chakra!"

Tsunade gave him another life chance to explain himself.

"He's a jinchuuriki! Sooner or later people will be coming for his sealed power; he will need to use it to protect himself!"

Tsunade slowly lowered her fist and released her chakra... after all, two very deadly ninja already had come for Naruto before...

"Okay..." Tsunade began with a tired, pained expression, "I understand why you did it. But did you have to mess with his seal?"

"So far Naruto has only been able to draw on the kyubi's chakra when he was in great danger or when he was very angry. Or by demanding it straight from the kyubi... but I doubt that it will always be in a giving mood."

Tsunade got his point, but she still didn't like it, not one bit!

"I thought if I opened the seal a little, it would be easier for Naruto to draw on the kyubi's chakra and he could learn to control it..."

"So what went wrong?"

Jiraiya gave a deep sigh of regret.

"I underestimated the kyubi; it's way more powerful than I thought. I swear I barely opened the seal by a crack and chakra just burst forth! It was like a breaking dam! It happened so fast that neither of us could react! It was so much chakra and so sudden that it simply overwhelmed the kid..."

The hokage visibly tensed up, "...what happened to Naruto then?"

"...he morphed into some pseudo-foxdemon-"

Tsunade almost erupted from anger, "ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THE KYUBI HAS TAKEN OVER NARUTO AND HE'S GONE?!"

"No! ...at least I don't think so..."

"What do you mean?!" Tsunade barely noticed that she was strangling the toad sage.

"The seal is still intact! It's chakra may have gushed out, but the kyubi should still be in its prison; besides-" Jiraiya struggled to speak, "I managed to slap a tag on him!"

...

"A tag...? What kind of tag?"

"A paper tag with a suppressor seal!" Jiraiya explained, "I prepared them to suppress the kyubi's chakra in case it got too much for the kid. I managed to stick a cuple on him before he knocked me out!"

That could change everything...

"Then why haven't we found Naruto?"

"I don't know! Once I slapped them on, Naruto got all crazy! He started thrashing about and knocked me into a tree!"

Tsunade let go of the old sage and thought over everything he had just said. Things were definitely bad but they were not hopeless: If these tags worked like Jiraiya said, than there might be a chance that they brought Naruto back to sanity. After that, Naruto probably found himself all alone in the forest and ended up getting lost (Tsunade remembered from one of his past missions that Naruto had a poor sense of direction.)

Things might not be so bad after all... then she remembered!

"You had Naruto sign the toad contract, didn't you?!"

"Huh? Uh... yeah."

"Than hurry up and get better and have one of your toads summon Naruto!"

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune stood in the doorway, gasping for breath, "A pair of ninja has just returned-"

Tsunade wasn't really interested, after all her worrying she felt drained...

"They said they found Naruto... but-"

"WHAT?! Where are they?!"

"In the emergency war- Tsunade-sama wait!"

Too late... 

Tsunade found the two ninja badly injured; one was unconscious, the other had his arm in a sling. Both looked as though they had just escaped from a war zone; their wound were just cleansed and bandaged.

"What happened to you?!"

"What happened?!" The conscious snarled, "That damn kyubi brat tried to kill us!" 


End file.
